My #1 tip for PiBoIdMo 2009? Celebrate the Weird Stuff in life. It’s good material for stories.
Late one evening a weird thing happened to me. After my husband and I tucked our kids in, we heard an unexpected knock at the door. I opened it and found a kid standing on my front porch. He was selling newspaper subscriptions in an effort to go to…Cowboy Camp. I looked at this kid with his everywhere hair and thick glasses and uncowboy-like everything and knew I had a story.
Another weird thing happened a few summers ago. I was visiting my sister who, at the time, lived in a gorgeous area outside of Plymouth, Massachusetts. I loved every bit of the trip—except for my early morning wake-up call.
Each day the sun would come up around 4:30AM and the rooster who lived on the nearby farm would let me know it. Each morning my dislike for that rooster grew. And grew. I got to hoping that bird was missing out on a lot of barnyard fun since he had to make sure he was ready to greet the early morning sun in such a loud and enthusiastic way.
Sooo…since I was up anyway…I started brainstorming. What did that rooster miss out on? What had the other animals been up to when he was catching his zzzzzs? Then I knew—a barnyard talent show.
The joke’s on me, though. In Chicken Dance the rooster didn’t sleep through the talent show after all. Instead, he ends up being one of the stars of the story as everyone who partakes in the competition is out for the grand prize—tickets to see Elvis Poultry in Concert: The Final Doodle-Doo.
Not all of my ideas show up at my door or wake me up at 4:30 in the morning. How I wish that were the case! But many of them do begin with Weird Stuff.
Today I want you to brainstorm some of the weird things in your life.
Do you live with a Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach? Do you come from an enormous family? Did you grow up on a pig farm? Have you had a strange run-in with a squirrel? With a rhino?
Go on. You know you’re weird, too. Get some paper and let’s celebrate it.
Tammi Sauer is the author of seven picture books (and counting). You can find her online at www.tammisauer.com and www.elvispoultrybooks.com.
Tammi’s Picture Books:
Cowboy Camp (Sterling, 2005)
Chicken Dance (Sterling, 2009)
Mostly Monsterly (S&S, 2010)
Mr. Duck Means Business (S&S, forthcoming)
Princess-in-Training (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, forthcoming)
Oh, Nuts! (Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
Bawk and Roll (Sterling, forthcoming)
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November 4, 2009 at 5:48 am
jimdqd
Great approach, Tammi, and one that I take all the time. I think many writers start with a “real life” event but then get too precious with it. They don’t allow the absurd to leap out of the mundane. Let the absurd leap, I say.
Day 4 finds me up too early but in possession of a new idea, one dripping with the absurd. And that was before I read Tammi’s advice.
Have a creative day!
November 4, 2009 at 7:43 am
Corey Schwartz
Oh, great post! I love hearing the inspiration behind the stories. (and we own Cowboy Camp so that was extra fun 🙂
November 4, 2009 at 10:09 am
Bonnie Adamson
Love the backstory, Tammi!
Weird, huh? Does my growing collection of plastic bread-bag closer-tab thingies count?
Seriously, have been stowing them away for years, now. Have no idea why.
November 4, 2009 at 10:59 am
Southpaw
Thank you for such an inspiring post!
November 4, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Jewel
Wierd stuff huh? I had a whole family of squirrals living in my attic once. I was awakened each morning with running paws across my ceiling. It took taking the soffit apart to get to the nest. I never considered this as wierd, just yucky. Now to look for the absurd in it. Thank you for your creative post.
November 4, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Sarah Dillard
Great post Tammi! And advice— I’ve been focusing on annoying habits people have and developing characters around them. Arugula would not have existed if not for mu M-I-L… (although I do love her, really!)
November 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm
tammi
Wuhooh! I’m not alone in my weirdness!
Corey…Yeehaw on your Cowboy Camp ownership. 🙂
And Sarah…ha! I love that little behind-the-scenes on Arugula.
November 4, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Loni Edwards
Wow! Great post! That gave me lots of ideas!
November 4, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Sheri Dillard
Great post, Tammi!
My PB idea for today came from something funny that happened at the preschool where I work. I was helping out in a class of 1 1/2 year olds. It’s a sweet and quiet class – no one is really talking yet. Yesterday, one of the little girls had on a sweater with a picture of a monkey on the front. All day long, whenever a child toddled by her, the monkey would catch their eye. They’d stop…look at the girl…and say, “AAAH AAAH AAAH!” (These kids know their animal sounds! 🙂 ) The little girl was VERY surprised the first couple times, and then she started to laugh and make the monkey sound, too. So cute!
November 4, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Rachel
Thanks for sharing Tammi and Tara. I have been a little out of the blogging world since my move, bur trhying to get back. This is a great idea, Tara. Sorry I missed it last year. I’m joining the party a little late, but I can’t wait to get my idea file going!
November 4, 2009 at 3:24 pm
tara
Good to have you join in, Rachel! You didn’t miss anything last year. I was doing this all by my lonesome. This year I’m so glad to have so many join in, as you are motivating me!
November 4, 2009 at 9:25 pm
tammi
Oh, and one more thing.
Let the weird thing simply trigger an idea.
Don’t write down the weird thing as it exactly happened b/c that could really bog down the story. And nobody wants that with the exception of maybe your mother. Or your pet fish.
November 10, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Kelly Fineman
I’m pretty certain I can I.D. some folks who meet those weird situations at the end – for sure the cockroach and the squirrel, anyhow!
November 7, 2012 at 12:01 am
PiBoIdMo Day 7: Every Day Tammi Sauer is Structurin’ « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)
[…] celebrate the weird stuff in life, […]
January 5, 2019 at 8:25 am
freda lewkowicz
Thank you!
January 31, 2023 at 8:15 am
Colleen Owen Murphy
Boy, how Storystorm has grown!!
January 31, 2023 at 10:50 am
Joan Longstaff
Hooray, three bonus ideas on the last day of Storystorm. A great post to end on and it’s great to have the extra bonus of your previous posts. Thank you so much!